Chip Kelly comfortable taking his time picking QB

Most figure Michael Vick will eventually be named the starting quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles. But Chip Kelly has made it clear he’s not going to rush into things.

Vick is in competition with Nick Foles and rookie Matt Barkley and as much as the team was able to accomplish in the spring, it wasn’t against live action.

“We're going to have to name a starter at some point in time,” Kelly said, according to Zach Berman of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “That's why I think it would be unfair right now, because there hasn't been enough situations to evaluate. If someone said, 'Hey, we have to play a game tomorrow,' we have to make a decision. But we don't have to play a game tomorrow.

“We have until Sept. 9, so we'll see how it works itself out.”

The Eagles will open training camp July 25 and the longer Kelly waits, the bigger this story will grow. If it plays out through preseason, it has the possibility of becoming a distraction. At some point, the Eagles need to make a decision and stick with a guy so he can get the bulk of the reps. The truth is, it’s about impossible to have a three-way competition too.

“You want to make sure you take the whole body of work into consideration,” Kelly said. “If in practice three they have a (bad) practice, do they come back in practice four and bounce back pretty good? Or have you made your decision after practice three? We're not forced to make a decision soon, and I don't think the positives of making an early decision outweigh making sure we make the right decision.

“It's the nature of the game. I understand that there always seems to be a question; I've had it every time we've had to make a decision on the quarterback. Every day we come off the practice field they want to know, 'How did the quarterbacks do?' No one was like, 'How did the gunner on the punt team do? Did you make your decision on that?' For us, as coaches, we evaluate every position similar to evaluating the quarterback position.”

We’ll see what Kelly’s timetable looks like when training camp kicks off.

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